Quigley Down Under is a 1990 western film set in Australia's outback. Starring Tom Selleck, Alan Rickman and Laura San Giacomo, it was directed by Simon Wincer. The film runs 119 minutes, and is rated PG-13 in the United States.
Plot
Tom Selleck plays Matthew Quigley, a cowboy and rifleman from America with a keen eye and a specially modified rifle with which he can shoot accurately at extraordinary distances. Quigley's weapon of choice is an 1874 Sharps Buffalo Rifle. He answers an advertisement that asks for men with a special talent in long distance shooting, the job being in Australia. On arriving, he is met by employees of the man who hired him, Elliot Marston (Alan Rickman), and is eventually taken to Marston's station in the Western Australian outback.
Marston is a gentleman infatuated with stories of quick-draw gunslingers from the American Old West, believing himself to have been born on the wrong continent, and amazed that Quigley has actually been to Dodge City. He hires Quigley to come to Australia in the hopes that Quigley will use his sharpshooting skills to help eradicate the native Aborigines. Quigley finds the idea abhorrent and the two men are quickly headed for a showdown.
Laura San Giacomo provides comic relief and a love interest as "Crazy Cora." Having suffered a terrifying personal tragedy some years before the film's story begins, Cora appears to think that Quigley is her estranged husband, Roy.
After Quigley turns Marston down, Marston has his men dump Quigley and Cora in the Australian Outback with no water and little chance of survival. Thanks to the help of a group of Aborigines, Quigley and Cora survive to rescue other Aborigines from Marston's men, including an orphaned baby who helps Cora overcome her tragic past. As the story progresses, Marston loses more and more men to Quigley until the final showdown, which leaves Quigley standing to face a hostile British major.
Cast
Production
John Hill first began writing Quigley Down Under in 1974, and both Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood had been considered for the lead, but by the time production began in 1980, McQueen was too ill and the project was scrapped until a decade later.[1]
The firearm used by Quigley (Selleck) is a custom 13-pound (six-kilogram), single-shot, 1874 Sharps Rifle, with a 34-inch (86-centimetre) barrel.[2] The gun used for filming was a replica manufactured for the film by the Shiloh Rifle Manufacturing Company of Big Timber, Montana.[3] In 2002, Selleck donated the rifle, along with six other firearms from his other films, to the National Rifle Association, as part of the NRA's exhibit "Real Guns of Reel Heroes" at the National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Virginia.[4]
Response
Critical responses were mixed but largely positive, with Quigley having a 66% rating on RottenTomatoes.com.[5] Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half out of four stars, arguing that it was a flawed but respectable neo-western, and particularly praising San Giacomo's performance: "[T]his may be the movie that proves her staying power. [...] She has an authority, a depth of presence, that is attractive, and her voice is deep and musical."[6]
The film was not a financial success in theaters, roughly recouping its budget.[7]
Quotes
Quigley, describing the rifle:
- It’s a lever-action, breech loader. Usual barrel length’s thirty inches. This one has an extra four. It’s converted to use a special forty-five caliber, hundred and ten grain metal cartridge, with a five-hundred and forty grain paper-patched bullet. It’s fitted with double set triggers, and a Vernier sight. It’s marked up to twelve-hundred yards. This one shoots a mite further.
References
External links
